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Week 3: Duncan Ward

Bolernayse by Duncan Ward

 

This piece for flute and piano was inspired by Ravel's Bolero. However, whilst the Bolero rhythm is always present, my aim was to use it at such a speed (either too slow or too fast) that it loses its Bolero characteristic. This explains the negation 'nayse' of the 'Boler' in the title (nothing to do with pasta sauce).

After a Spanish strum across the strings inside the piano, the piece commences with a high flute entry introducing my principle melodic material. The flowing cantabile is interrupted by a fiery scherzo leading to the climactic Bolero chords. There is a brief interlude interlude of drifting chromatic harmonies before the scherzo continues. The peaceful ending looks back to the opening, and finally closes with bell-like harmonics on the piano.

Downloads
Duncan's Promcast
Bolernayse.mp3 (mp3 file, 6.6MB)

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